First, I will get the Singler thing out of the way. For most of the game, Singler being in the game hurt our D. However, he actually made some defensive plays toward the end of the game, and got his rebounding in gear. Yes, you wonder how he pulled some of those rebounds from bigger players, but he did it. Singler finished plus 3 for the game, despite giving up all those points, so not a bad game - for him. He was in the same position as last night's game, halfway between the basket and the perimeter. But this time, in the 2nd half anyway, he made the right choice, to bother the cutters. In other words, he chose to play defense tonight whereas he opted out last night. Still, when Indiana had Hibbert, Scola, and George in for quite a stretch with Singler in the game - Singler could not begin to guard any of those three, and as the other bigs had to scramble to try to cover for him, Scola got open over and over and hit the shots. Singler did kind of sort of get near Scola once and the announcers made a big deal of Singler "rushing his shot." No, Scola just happened to miss that one. Coach is again obsessed with playing Singler, even playing him at power forward and watching him get totally burnt there. At least Singler picked some quick fouls up and was pulled fast enough.

Of note, we have beaten Miami, Chicago, and now Indiana by using Harrellson as the first sub in for at least one half of basketball. Each time for Drummond foul trouble. Harrellson for Drummond seems to work quite well. Lets drop the nonsense of subbing Singler in for Drummond and believing that will work.

Now the good. Or I should say, the very good. We just beat Indiana at their home. Yes, go ahead and pinch yourself. You will see you are not dreaming. We really did just beat the top team in the league. And at their place - something no other team has done this year, and something the Pistons have not done since 2008. That means we are a pretty good team. And in my opinion, we have another gear to go into - by adding the energy that a player like Mitchell can provide.

Smith not only scored 30, it was his second straight 30 point game, against two of the best teams in the league. Not to mention his block late was huge. And pretty much all inside tonight for him, though he did hit that one triple and a couple of other midrangers. Got to love that face up he nailed off one of his postups. He finished in a variety of ways around the basket, and basically showed us fans he really is as good as the salary we are paying him.

We led after the half, despite Drummond only playing 4 minutes due to foul trouble. Because Harrellson rocked. 10 rebounds, 7 points. And of course coach was smart enough to play him. Harrellson again showed he can drive the ball. And he again showed his passing skills are well, in need of some work. Nobody is perfect - but Harrellson looked just fine on defense in this one and his rebounding looked exceptional.

JJ got in for a minute and hit a 3 to end the half to go plus 7 for the game. Pope was plus 6, hit a couple of threes, played a lot of small forward - played all but 3 mintues in the first half. 36 minutes for him against the best in the league and his D looked solid against their best.

Stuckey hit the one shot in the 2nd half, he was injured (shoulder - in a collision) in the first half. Questionable at this point for next game.

Jennings had another high assist, low turn game. Again, he ran up a bunch of assists to no turns until very late in the game. And he got 18 much needed points, including a clutch triple and some clutch free throws after driving inside. Still no sign though that he has been in the gym a moment even on working on that right side thing.

That one clutch Jennings triple put us back up five after the lead had been cut to 2. Talk about some breathing room - and talk about some serious pressure at that point for Indiana to make some shots - and they missed some. Probably the pressure from that shot.

Drummond ended up with a 9/9 game, pretty darn good for just 21 minutes. Monroe, a very respectable 13/12 double double. A combined 51 / 28 for our starting front line.

No Billups, just because it was the 2nd of a back to back. Instead, we got Bynum. He did make some shots, and hooked up with Drummond for a slam. But he also threw the ball away a few times. I see they charged the receiver on one of the turns.

Well, Stuckey was the only guy much negative in this game, and he was hurt. We held their top scorers in check pretty well. Scola and Stephenson scored too much, but they did not score enough that our plan failed. We won the game, so good choice in choosing who had to beat us in this one. PS, one of the best things Singler did in this game is drive in, draw the 2nd foul on Gearge to sit him down early.

Got to mention Monroe just looked great slicing thru Hibbert at times. And JSmoothe looked even smoother.

So even with no Stuckey heroics, no Drummond for most of a half, and no Billups to steady the ship, we still won.

They can say, oh, we will get Granger yet, so look out. Hmm, we could start playing Mitchell yet, so look out league.

Drummond reverted a bit, only hitting 1-5 at the line. The good news, at least some of them were almost down. I do not think he is comfortable enough with holding the ball as long as he needs to. It seems like the longer he concentrates on the shot, the better he does. I would suggest he dribbles the ball a couple of times to calm himself down before he readies his shot.

So far this year, Singler's man is shooting 46-123 (37.4%) and scores 0.84 points per possession. His man is fouled only 4% of the time, which is ridiculously low. On spot-up jump shots, his man is 16-56 (28.6%) and is only fouled 1.6% of the time.

The only player with significant playing time with a better ppp against is Drummond.

On offense, Singler scores 1.10 points per possession. So that's a net spread of 0.26 points over his man if they both take 1 shot. Singler averages 12.0 attempts per 48 min. If we assume his man does too, then that's a positive differential of 3 points over our opponents per NBA game length.

Just because you say that a player gives up points doesn't mean that he really does. If you have a better tracking system than Synergy Sports, you should probably patent it.

So far this year, Singler's man is shooting 46-123 (37.4%) and scores 0.84 points per possession. His man is fouled only 4% of the time, which is ridiculously low. On spot-up jump shots, his man is 16-56 (28.6%) and is only fouled 1.6% of the time.

The only player with significant playing time with a better ppp against is Drummond.

On offense, Singler scores 1.10 points per possession. So that's a net spread of 0.26 points over his man if they both take 1 shot. Singler averages 12.0 attempts per 48 min. If we assume his man does too, then that's a positive differential of 3 points over our opponents per NBA game length.

Just because you say that a player gives up points doesn't mean that he really does. If you have a better tracking system than Synergy Sports, you should probably patent it.

So far this year, Singler's man is shooting 46-123 (37.4%) and scores 0.84 points per possession. His man is fouled only 4% of the time, which is ridiculously low. On spot-up jump shots, his man is 16-56 (28.6%) and is only fouled 1.6% of the time.

The only player with significant playing time with a better ppp against is Drummond.

On offense, Singler scores 1.10 points per possession. So that's a net spread of 0.26 points over his man if they both take 1 shot. Singler averages 12.0 attempts per 48 min. If we assume his man does too, then that's a positive differential of 3 points over our opponents per NBA game length.

Just because you say that a player gives up points doesn't mean that he really does. If you have a better tracking system than Synergy Sports, you should probably patent it.

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Question for you. Who was Singler's man when he was at small forward tonight while Indiana was playing George, Scola, and Hibbert? I will tell you Singler was covering nobody in particular. Let me know if you have a theory on who he was covering, and how Synergy Sports tracks such situations where a guy is simply zoned up and not actually playing any particular player, as Singler has done so much of this season?

I just watched this game again cause I couldn't believe we won lol. This is the team we all envisioned and this is the version of Josh Smith we all remembered. Also, our perimeter defense is finally stepping up! We're actually chasing after the shooters and we're contesting shots. Fun game to watch to say the least and this takes the sting out from that horrid Lions loss tonight.

The plays are tagged by multiple people (blind to each other) to ensure accuracy. The trackers determine who was most responsible (for instance, if you let your man blow by you, you're going to get the blame, even if Dre tries to get your back. You'll also get the credit if Dre bails you out, but that makes sense because you'll be rewarded for funneling players into the teeth of the defense.). In certain situations, like offensive rebounds and fast breaks, they may determine that nobody is specifically responsible. They post every single play on the site to be examined by subscribers.

The plays are tagged by multiple people (blind to each other) to ensure accuracy. The trackers determine who was most responsible (for instance, if you let your man blow by you, you're going to get the blame, even if Dre tries to get your back. You'll also get the credit if Dre bails you out, but that makes sense because you'll be rewarded for funneling players into the teeth of the defense.). In certain situations, like offensive rebounds and fast breaks, they may determine that nobody is specifically responsible. They post every single play on the site to be examined by subscribers.

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So a guy playing a modified zone, where he is given no specific responsibility, will never get credited for a bad defensive play. Very flawed system.

My only question was who was not supposed to be checking Scola in the 4th when he went 6-7 from the field and almost stole the game from us?

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Harrelson left him open twice, Smith once and Monroe once. Smith has a very bad habit of getting stuck in the paint on defense.

Singler was fine on defense. Anybody who says otherwise is jaded to say the least. With the exception of them leaving Scola wide open in the 4th qtr, everyone played solid defense..... Even Brandon Jennings.

Harrelson left him open twice, Smith once and Monroe once. Smith has a very bad habit of getting stuck in the paint on defense.

Singler was fine on defense. Anybody who says otherwise is jaded to say the least. With the exception of them leaving Scola wide open in the 4th qtr, everyone played solid defense..... Even Brandon Jennings.

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Yes. It's kind of like Stuckey. You see him playing well and it doesn't fit the preconceived ideas. Sometimes players get better.

Pacers, best record in the NBA before being beaten by our PISTONS for the 1st time at home this season, and no headlines on ESPN. Instead we have headlines on the Heat beating the Jazz, omg, let me repeat, the Jazz for basketball sake as well as the little ankle sprain on the King. Even Prigioni with a broken toe got onto the headlines in addition to Lopez being DNP for the Nets. They have no love for our Pistons & the Pacers. ESPN Sucks.